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Marmulak
A satirical Iranian movie depicting the life of a convicted criminal who disguises himself as a cleric has become a box-office hit in Iran. The film, Marmoulak (The Lizard), was originally scheduled to be screened in late March during the Iranian new year holidays. But the authorities found the message of the film offensive to the clergy and ordered it to be banned. Later they allowed it to be screened with some cuts. The film follows the fortunes of Reza Marmoulak - Reza the Lizard - a convicted thief who disguises himself as a Muslim cleric to escape from prison. He then discovers the benefits of life as a preacher under Iran's clerical rule. On his way to the border to leave the country illegally, he arrives in a village where the people have been waiting for a cleric to lead their Friday sermons. Reza the Lizard becomes their popular religious leader and captivates their imagination by his simplicity and brings worshippers flocking back to the mosques.
Clerics angered So one message of the film is that even a convicted criminal could go through a moral transformation and find God himself. But what has probably angered conservative clerics is the underlying criticism of their privileged position in society. Hardliners are also uncomfortable with the prospect of a criminal acting as a cleric and a mullah who does not know much about Islam and jokes with the worshippers. Mocking clerics is a taboo under the Islamic government and The Lizard is the first film to cross this red line. The director of the film, Kamal Tabrizi, has said that the clergy must understand that in order to be able to survive they should accept criticism. Film critics say that The Lizard is one of the funniest films ever made in Iran about the clergy and they predict that it could become one of the most commercially successful Iranian films of all time. In the run-up to parliamentary elections in Iran, Rozita Lotfi, a writer from the BBC Persian Service, gives a snapshot of an aspect of contemporary life in the Islamic Republic.
Siamak |
Postcards from Iran: Tehran party In the run-up to parliamentary elections in Iran, Pooneh Ghoddoosi of the BBC Persian Service gives a snapshot of an aspect of contemporary life in the Islamic Republic.
Islamic
art gallery to rival Saatchi
The powerful Iranian-born financier and fanatical collector has
revealed he is searching for a venue for a major national museum and has
pledged to complete the project before the end of the decade. The
planned display will be a rival to Charles Saatchi's South Bank gallery
and a response to current criticisms of Islamic culture in the Western
world.
Khalili, who came to live in London in 1980, has more than 20,000
pieces of art in his collection, which is valued at around $1.5 billion,
and he has hoped to find a way to display it in Britain since he began
buying art in the late 1970s.
'I will do it in the next five years,' he promised the art magazine
Apollo this weekend, stressing that British taxpayers will not have to
pay 'a penny'.
In recent years he has toured highlights of his collection around the
world and many of his rare artifacts are on display this month at
London's Somerset House in the show 'Heaven on Earth: Islamic art from
the Khalili and Hermitage collections'.
A great believer in sharing the art he owns with the public, Khalili
has said: 'The ultimate owner of everything in life is the good Lord
above. We are only His temporary custodians.'
Khalili is thought to have earned his fortune by investing in
property with capital inherited from his father in Tehran, but even his
friends have expressed curiosity about where it all comes from. In the
past the collector has even been rumoured to be buying art on behalf of
Middle Eastern royalty, but he has firmly denied the suggestion.
Other early profitable investments are thought to have been in art
and the commodities markets. Conspicuous purchases outside the art world
have included London's Burlington Arcade and a home in Kensington which
he later sold to the Formula One mogul, Bernie Ecclestone, for £65
million. In 1994 he acknowledged having made £30m in real estate over
the previous two years.
The descendant of 'four generations of art collectors and dealers in
the Islamic field', the young Khalili was a graduate student at London
University's School of Oriental and African Studies, where he was later
to establish the country's first academic chair in
Islamic
art. He has also endowed a research fellowship in Islamic art at Oxford
University and is one of the founders of the Iran Heritage foundation,
which was established in 1995 to promote the culture of his homeland.
When it comes to art he regards his duty as threefold, he has said.
'One: collect; two: preserve, research and publish; three: exhibit.'
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He left Iran at 22 and became a naturalised American. Moving to the centre of the Islamic art dealing world, London, in the Eighties, he worked as an art dealer and fundraiser for charity. He married a British jeweller's clerk, Marion Easton, and became a valued contributor to Conservative Party funds. Friends include Benjamin Netanyahu and the Sultan of Brunei, the richest man in the world. In 1992, Khalili offered to lend the British government his collection, which includes rare illustrated Korans, medieval arms, jewellery and ceramics. Under the proposed deal, the government was to have provided a museum building. He also later offered his work to the British Museum on a 15-year loan, but then withdrew his offer when negotiations dragged on. The fire at an east London art warehouse last week has pointed up the amount of valuable and significant art work which is held in storage in Britain. Many collectors increasingly feel they have a moral duty to find new ways to display their possessions, especially as work held together in bulk may be at greater risk. Iranian postcards: The new rich
In the run-up to parliamentary elections in Iran,
Maria Sarsalari, a writer from the BBC Persian Service, gives a snapshot
of an aspect of contemporary life in the Islamic Republic.
Wedding
Guests Spark I
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